Spiders Caught Hunting in Giant Synchronized Swarms, And Now We Know How

Pack hunting spiders exist in places other than your nightmares. While most spiders enjoy solitary lives, 20 of the roughly 50,000 known spider species live in colonies. One species, Anelosimus eximius, lives in extremely large colonies of up to 1,000 individual spiders that work together to build webs spanning several meters.   When prey falls into their … Read more

Russia-Ukraine Conflict Prompted U.S. to Develop Autonomous Drone Swarms, 1,000-Mile Cannon

When Russia annexed Crimea and meddled in Ukraine’s Donets Basin, or Donbas, region in 2014, its military revealed new technology, organization and tactics—and upended much of the U.S. military’s thinking about modern warfare. Now, as Moscow keeps U.S. and European leaders guessing about whether it will invade Ukraine again, the Pentagon is pushing forward with … Read more

Astronomers set up center to counter threat of satellite swarms | Science

Three years ago, astronomers were reeling from the launch of the first 60 satellites of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation, which aims to provide broadband internet access worldwide. The satellites left bright traces on astronomical images, posing “an existential threat to observation from the ground,” said astronomer Debra Elmegreen, president of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), at … Read more

Mutant Bacteria Accidentally Recreated One of Van Gogh’s Most Iconic Paintings

The line between art and science is sometimes a swirly one. Researchers studying a social bacterium that moves and feeds in coordinated swarms have unintentionally recreated something that looks a lot like a familiar masterpiece.   When a certain gene is overexpressed in a bacterium known as Myxococcus xanthus, the individual organisms self-organize into tiny circular … Read more